Part of the Annenberg/CPB Collection
Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired
Funded by the Annenberg/CPB Project

The Western Tradition, 52 half-hour television programs is a two-semester television course, built around the classroom lectures of Eugene Weber, internationally renowned author, historian, and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Weber spins thousands of years into a seamless story, making the abstract more concrete and developing the ability of students to analyze and appreciate history. By weaving together history, art, literature, religion, geography, government and economics, THE WESTERN TRADITION helps students recognize the pendulum swings of history, identify parallels in the modern world, and gain a sense of their own place in the evolution of human institutions.

Semester One consists of 13 units of study with two half-hour programs per unit. It begins with the influential pre-Western civilizations and continues through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Semester Two begins with the Wars of Religion and continues through industrial modernization to the present. Each semester can be used alone, or together as a complete year-long sequence.